JWU Announces The Tyler Florence Scholarship

JWU, along with celebrity chef, author, and J&W alumnus Tyler Florence ('94 Charleston campus) together announced Ms. Riley Bair of Charleston, SC the first-ever recipient of the annual Tyler Florence Scholarship.            
 
The Tyler Florence Scholarship is a $15,000 renewable scholarship that will be offered to one high school senior in the Charleston, Dorchester, or Berkley communities of South Carolina. The scholarship is available for any major offered at Johnson & Wales, and for any of J&W's campuses. The annual scholarship deadline is February 1, and the first scholarship recipient will be selected in the Spring of 2007, for enrollment at J&W that same September.
 
Riley – a 17 year oldsenior at BishopEngland High School, was born and raised in Charleston, SC, where she lives there with her family and two siblings.Riley got the cooking bug at 15 when she started working part-time at a neighborhood restaurant called Just Chill.It was there that she learned how much she liked to cook and had her first experience as a short-order cook.From there Riley went on to work at a take-out/catering eatery called The Square Onion in Mt. Pleasant where she started doing independent catering.She is currently employed at Long Point Grill as aline cook, and will be attending JWU’s Charlotte campus this fall.
 
“I have always enjoyed cooking and really got a passion for it three years ago when I started working in a kitchen,” says Riley Bair. “I love it and it’s what I’m looking forward to doing for as long as I can.”
 
"As a way of saying thank you for its long-standing support of Johnson & Wales University, we wanted to create a lasting legacy of education and career opportunity within the Greater Charleston community," said Mim Runey, President of the Charleston Campus. "In honor of Tyler's outstanding career success and long-term support of the University, we're delighted and proud to be working with him to offer the chance of a world-class university education to one deserving Low Country high school student each year."
 
"Since my education from J&W really prepared me for wonderful things to happen, I believe this scholarship is an awesome opportunity for a high school student each year to reach his or her dreams," said Tyler Florence. "And I couldn't be any more proud than to have my name affiliated with it."
 
The scholarship commemorates the closing of J&W's Charleston campus, which will hold its final commencement in May. The campus closing is part of the University's consolidation strategy for its southeastern campuses, following the opening of its new, expanded, standard-setting campus in the heart of Charlotte's uptown business district in September, 2004.
 
"Since opening our campus in Charleston in 1984, Johnson & Wales has enjoyed a hospitable, mutually beneficial affiliation with the greater Charleston community," says Dr. John Bowen, University President of Johnson & Wales. "And so it is with gratitude and fond memories that we as a university community leave a legacy behind in Charleston."